434 



VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 



CHAP. XVI. 



animals there were specimens which I intended to preserve, in 

 order that they might find a final resting-place in the splen- 



THE SPINY TBNREC 



did museum under the care of Professor Owen in London ; at 

 whose earnest entreaty I had used my best endeavours, though 

 without success, to obtain relics of the dodo in Mauritius, 

 and the rare and wonderful Cheiromya Madagascarensis. I 

 had given the presents in question to the special charge of one 

 of my attendants ; but they had been forgotten when the other 

 things were removed, and on my sending back afterwards to 

 inquire about them, they could not be found. 



About ten o'clock on the day when my friends left me we 

 reached Amboilefo, where we halted at the residence of the 

 mother of the wife of a French trader at Tamatave, for which 

 place the mother had that morning set out. But the two 

 daughters, one of whom had recently become a widow, received 

 me very kindly, and soon provided a hospitable breakfast. 

 The young widow wore her hair unplaited and dishevelled ; 

 and this, with her wan face, the result of long illness, and the 

 low plaintive voice in which she spoke, together with the as- 

 pect of a weak sickly child which lay in her arms, strongly ex- 

 cited my compassion. They were evidently a family of some 



